Trouble in my way it makes me cry sometimes.
-Shontelle Norman-Beatty
THIS is the song I need to hear at Happy Hour!! I need this in my life!! Woo God!! This sassy sweet beat. This southern soulful voice. This hand clapping, hip moving rhythm. This is it. It's giving me James Brown. It's giving me old school church meets new generation church. It's giving me all the things. The horns are giving me life right here. Shontelle Norman-Beatty, thank you sis. You did this. You and your team. I feel your COGIC roots coming through right here. And listen I'm one of the ones that will tell you to leave the classics alone. This sister from Memphis gave me what I needed here.
So we have this thing we do at my church now called Happy Hour. It really refers to our Sunday morning service, but particularly to the 20-30 minutes before we officially get started and begin our Live stream on Facebook and online. Anyway, we usually have a variety of praise music playing during this pre-worship part of the service and it can get serious! Dancing, jumping, shouting and all kinds of things go on during this time. It's a symbol of freedom. It's a symbol of joy. It's a foretelling of what's to come. This is the song that I need the Creative Team to play at that time. I'm terribly excited at the thought of it. This song immediately makes me throw my hands in the air and swing my hips from side to side. I feel the music in my body and I can't keep still! I automatically think of just some of the things Jesus has fixed for me. Shontelle says all I have to do is just let Him fix it. Once I figured this out my life completely changed. My mindset shifted, my health took a turn, my house became a different place. Everything was just different from that point forward.
There was a very low point for me in my life when I felt stagnant in my life and in my marriage. It was almost as if I couldn't breathe. So I began looking for ways to break free. And for whatever reason, in my mind, it was easier to go the wrong way. I began to find excuses to stay away from the house. I began spending more and more time out with so-called friends. I began turning into something else. I had been walking with Jesus a long time- I was no stranger to prayer and I had seen Him perform miracles. But for some reason, I was very stiff-necked in this area. It was as if I said, "Ok, I tried it your way Lord, I don't like the results so now I'm gonna do what I want." And I went about doing dumb stuff. I surrounded myself with people that only flirted with Jesus. They never rocked with Him like I did and that was no good for me. I got more bruises and headaches from that foolishness.
Thankfully He didn't leave me there. Things got worse before they got better. I nearly divorced. I got sick and nearly died. But He was there all along. The Son of God was reaching His hand for me all the time. He was always ready to help. He preferred to be in the driver's seat in the first place. Finally I yielded. I had tried my way and mucked everything up so why not go back to The Source. And after a while, He fixed it. Now I can celebrate a healthy marriage and a healthy body. I'm pulling out throwback dance moves for Jesus and everything! (When you finish reading go look at this! https://youtu.be/lcSs1bzI-CI)
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